SANTA ANA — A Santa Ana jury today rejected a 74-year-old sexually violent predator’s bid for release, determining that he continues to pose a threat and should remain in state custody.

Sid Nathaniel Landau has been housed at the state hospital in Coalinga, but he contended his disorder was under control. Jurors found, however, that he is still a sexually violent predator.

Deputy District Attorney Dan Wagner insisted during the trial that Landau should remain in the mental institution because he was receiving regular testosterone injections and has refused any psychological counseling for pedophilia.

But defense attorney Sara Ross said a doctor who had previously diagnosed Landau as a sexually violent predator believes he is suitable for release.

She conceded that Landau’s past crimes were “awful,” but claimed he no longer presented a risk to the public.

Landau was most recently convicted in 1988 when he pleaded guilty to molesting an 8-year-old boy, Wagner said.

The prosecutor said Landau molested 10 boys for two decades before being caught and spent only 15 months free over the next 25 years because of parole violations.

Landau moved to California in 1961 when he started molesting his first victim, Jerry, in Anaheim, Wagner said. Jerry was 8 years old and lived in the same apartment complex, and Landau lured the boy as he did many other victims over the years — with a dog, the prosecutor said.

As he did with other victims, he “courted” the boy by taking him to Disneyland, the movies, swimming, camping, boating and other activities, Wagner said.

The molestation stopped in 1963 when the boy started “hitting puberty” and was no longer attractive to Landau, Wagner said.

Landau met his second victim, another 8-year-old boy, in 1964, Wagner said. He continued molesting the boy, Scott, until 1968 “when (the victim) grows up and puberty begins,” according to the prosecutor.

Landau met his third victim — also named Sid — in 1969 while Landau was volunteering in a local youth sports program, Wagner said. Unlike the others, Landau molested the boy into his teen years until 1976, the prosecutor said.

Wagner said Landau would take nude photos of his victims and feed them alcohol and marijuana in his Huntington Avenue home in Anaheim, which had a third-story tower with a clear view of Disneyland’s nightly fireworks show.

His home was stocked with stuffed animals, pinball machines and the latest video games, like Atari. He would sometimes engage in group sex with several boys, Wagner said.

Landau’s ninth victim led to his arrest in 1981 when the 10-year-old boy’s father caught Landau in the act of molesting the child, the prosecutor said.

For that offense, Landau was found to be a “mentally disordered sex offender” and sent to a mental hospital instead of prison. But he didn’t like it there, and demanded to serve the rest of his time in prison, Wagner said.

Landau was paroled in 1984. Three years later, he was arrested for allegedly molesting a 5-year-old boy, but the case was dismissed, Wagner said.

While that case was pending, he was grooming a 10th victim, an 8-year- old boy, according to Wagner.

When the boy’s uncle grew suspicious, he asked a friend in law enforcement to check Landau’s record, eventually leading to his arrest, a guilty plea and a 17-year prison sentence in June 1988, Wagner said.

When he was freed in 1998, Landau moved to New York to live with his brother, but it didn’t go well and after a month he was back in California, where he got in trouble again for tampering with a GPS monitor, Wagner said.

Landau was in and out of custody for other parole violations, and in 2000, prosecutors filed a petition to have Landau declared a sexually violent predator. He has been in custody ever since.

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